■- ; ' ■ 


God’s  grant  to  the  gentiles 


ANNUAL  SERMON 

BEFORE  THE 

American  Board  of  Commissioners 
FOR  Foreign  Missions 

DELIVERED  AT 

MADISON,  WISCONSIN,  OCTOBER  10,  1894 

BY  THE 

REV.  T.  EATON  CLAPP,  D.D. 

Pastor  of  the  First  Congregational  Church.  Manchester,  N.  H. 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  BOARD 
I SOMERSET  STREET  BOSTON 


GOD’S  GRANT  TO  THE  GENTILES 


ANNUAL  SERMON 


American 

BEFORE  THE 

Board  of  Commissioners 

FOR  Foreign  Missions 


MADISON, 

DELIVERED  AT 

WISCONSIN,  OCTOBER  10,  1894 

BY  THE 

REV.  T.  EATON  CLAPP,  D.D. 

Pastor  of  the  First  Congregational  Church.  Manchester.  N.  H. 
PUBLISHED  BY  THE  BOARD 

1 SOMERSET  STREET  BOSTON 


BEACON  PRESS  : 


THOMAS  TODD,  PRINTER, 
7-A  BEACON  ST.,  BOSTON. 


GOD’S  GRANT  TO  THE  GENTILES. 


“And  when  they  heard  these  things,  they  held  their  peace, 
AND  GLORIFIED  GOD,  SAYING,  THEN  TO  THE  GeNTILES  ALSO  HATH  GOD 
GRANTED  REPENTANCE  UNTO  LIFE.”  — Ac/S  xi  : l8. 

Christian  Brethren  : 

The  pulpit  of  our  beloved  American  Board  is  sacred 
for  its  associations.  The  occupant  is  compassed  about  by 
a cloud  of  venerated  and  glorified  witnesses,  who  hold 
him  in  full  survey.  For  more  than  eighty  years  one  and 
another  has  prayed  to  be  sent  to  you  with  a message 
moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  so  profitable  for  doctrine, 
reproof,  correction,  and  instruction  in  the  righteousness 
of  missions. 

We  are,  so  we  believe,  commissioners  of  the  very 
heart  of  the  work  of  the  Lord  — work  which  angels 
would  love  to  perform.  “If  Christianity  is  heroic  life, 
the  missionary  work  is  heroic  Christianity.”  No  men 
ever  more  needed  wisdom  or  more  felt  their  insufficiency 
to  fit  foreign  timber  into  the  building  of  God.  No  men 
ever  craved  more  to  be  without  shame  when  the  awful 
fire  test  shall  be  submitted.  May  the  infinite  Maker  and 
Builder  speak  to  us  on  this  latest  anniversary  occasion,  so 
that  as  men  of  God  we  may  be  thoroughly  furnished  for 
the  work  of  our  hands  in  this  new  time ! May  all  the 
mighty  motives  that  inspired  and  constrained  the  select 
master  builders  of  sacred  story  — “the  recompense  of  re- 
ward,” “the  unseen  and  eternal,”  “Him  who  is  invisible,” 
“the  Son  of  man  standing  at  the  right  hand  of  God,” 
“the  love  of  Christ” — salute  our  uplifted  eyes  as  we  gird 
up  our  loins  for  another  missionary  tour  around  the  world! 


4 


GOD  S GRANT  TO  THE  GENTILES. 


Nor  do  we  forget  our  representative  character.  Loyal 
to  the  fathers  of  this  venerable  Board,  we  eschew,  as  Job 
eschewed  evil,  the  most  ragged  remnant  of  aught  save 
an  obedient  trusteeship  for  the  brotherhood  of  churches, 
whose  plant  the  Board  is  and  evermore  shall  be. 
Churches,  not  boards,  are  collectively  the  body,  the 
bride,  of  Christ.  U2^on  her  the  Holy  Ghost  fell  in  the 
radiant  Christian  beginning ; in  her  he  abides ; and  forth 
from  her  must  flow  the  potency  of  missionary  life. 
Boards  are  but  methods,  not  entities.  The  churches 
are  our  Antioch ; corporate  members.  Prudential  Commit- 
tee, missionaries,  are  their  Paul  and  Barnabas.  Upon  us 
the  churches  lay  directed  hands,  to  whom  also  we  return 
with  report.  We  are  the  river  bed,  the  channel,  through 
which  flows  the  crystal  river  of  their  beneficence.  We 
are,  to  use  Paul’s  striking  figure,  the  earthern  casket  to 
carry  their  intrusted  gospel  treasures  to  the  Gentile  sons 
and  daughters  of  God. 

Christ  keep  us  from  becoming  lords  of  the  heritage  ; 
keep  us  flexible,  ojDen  channels,  willing  and  loyal  servants 
of  transportation ! Perish  all  methods  that  suggest  as- 
sumptions or  aught  faithless  to  the  sentiment  dear  to 
every  Congregational  heart,  “The  American  Board,  the 
servant  of  the  churches,  for  Jesus’  sake!” 

In  such  mood  we  reverently  handle  this  word  of  his 
Spirit.  It  is  a conclusion  of  our  ai^ostolic  fathers  — a con- 
clusion most  revolutionary  in  its  effect  uj^on  their  Christian 
minds.  It  is  a conclusion  accepted  reverently,  candidly, 
joyously.  “They  held  their  peace,  and  glorified  God,  say- 
ing, Then  to  the  Gentiles  also  hath  God  granted  repent- 
ance unto  life.”  Hostile  reluctance  before  it  fled  away 
like  morning  mist,  and  at  a single  stroke  they  saw  with 
welcome  that  the  privileges  of  the  new  kingdom,  like  the 
command  of  God,  were  “wide  as  the  world.” 

This  exjiansion  of  vision  was  the  more  possible  be- 
cause their  previous  reluctance  was  not  of  the  will  and 
heart,  but  of  the  head.  Theirs  was  not  the  hesitation  of 


god’s  grant  to  the  gentiles. 


5 


a narrow  and  ungenerous  indifference,  but  of  ignorance  of 
the  divine  purpose.  Hard-headedness  is  always  more 
hopeful  than  hard-heartedness,  but  no  man  ever  so  Chris- 
tian-hearted became  a good  neighbor  until  he  had  located 
his  neighbor  with  the  theodolite  of  the  Good  Samaritan. 

Whether  or  not  our  Lord  while  on  earth  restricted 
the  ‘‘kindness  of  God  toward  man”  to  the  lost  sheep 
of  the  house  of  Israel  for  the  same  reason  that  Moses 
loosened  the  marriage  bond  — “even  the  hardness  of  their 
hearts”  — certainly  he  did  so  restrict,  and  to  that  extent 
the  infant  Church  could  not  understand  his  speech  when, 
at  the  moment  of  his  coronation,  he  commissioned  them 
to  compass  sea  and  land  with  his  gospel.  Both  apostles 
and  brethren  thought  they  were  doing  God’s  service  by 
discipling  within  the  Jewish  radius. 

Cornelius  of  Csesarea  was  the  pioneer,  the  Columbus, 
to  discover  for  the  Gentile  world  the  new  continent  of 
grace  and  truth ; or,  to  vary  the  figure,  Cornelius  made 
the  test  case.  Believing  that  a dying  and  risen  Saviour 
gave  the  repenting  and  believing  Gentile  also  a right  to 
the  tree  of  life  and  entrance  through  the  gates  of  the 
city,  he  appealed  to  the  supreme  court  for  a ruling  to 
that  effect  and  won  his  suit.  The  middle  wall  of  parti- 
tion was  thrown  down,  and  to  the  consciousness  of  the 
infant  Church  — lo ! the  field  was  the  world.  Let  us  of 
Gentile  ancestry  cherish  the  name  of  Cornelius  in  ever- 
lasting remembrance ! 

Little  did  Peter  know  the  use  he  was  soon  to  make 
of  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  nor  the  resplendent  ministry 
he  put  in  peril  on  that  cold  morning  of  his  profane  denial 
in  the  high  priest’s  court.  It  only  remained  for  a stroke 
of  lightning  from  the  third  heaven  outside  of  Damascus, 
a little  later  on,  to  complete  what  the  prayer  of  the  dying 
Stephen  began,  and  Paul,  the  immortal  agent  for  this 
larger  hope,  was  ready  to  commence  the  foreign  mission- 
ary era  of  the  Christian  Church  — a commencement  whose 
radiance  still  enlightens  the  world. 


6 


god’s  grant  to  the  gentiles. 


Sad  addition  to  sacred  history  is  it  to  write  that 
even  then  Jerusalem  should  so  far  remain  under  the  old 
blight  as  again  “ not  to  know  her  day,”  and  Antioch, 
rather  than  she,  became  the  mother  missionary  church. 
Must  this  chapter  of  history,  this  chapter  of  reluctance 
in  the  life  of  the  first  church,  like  so  many  others,  re- 
peat itself  ? Does  only  the  timid  and  despondent  spirit 
see  in  disturbed  vision  a church  alike  reluctant  before 
the  present  Gentile  missionary  problem,  a disposition  to 
lock  the  door  against  the  non-Christian  portion  of  our 
race  1 Dr.  Dennis,  in  his  lecture  on  the  “ Present  Day 
Conflicts  of  the  Foreign  Mission  Field,”  heads  the  list  of 
“conflicts  inevitable  in  aggressive  efforts  at  reform”  with 
“a  self-centered  Christianity  in  the  Church  at  home.” 

Will  not  a concensus  of  American  pastors  reveal  the 
existence  of  a formidable  and  growing  minority  in  our 
churches  avowing  with  hesitant  and  sullen  speech,  “ We 
do  not  believe  in  foreign  missions } ” The  pastor’s  prayer- 
ful appeal  is  met  by  a cold  counter-congregational  wave, 
and  the  church,  like  its  Master,  cannot  do  many  mighty 
works  “because  of  their  unbelief.”  These  pastors  sadly 
wonder  “whereunto  this  thing  will  grow.” 

Blessed  be  the  Lord,  these  reluctant  brethren  — for 
whom  He  died  — are  in  a minority  to  whom  the  majority 
cannot  give  place.  No,  not  for  an  hour!  But  in  the 
presence  of  the  sublimest  wish  and  loftiest  command  of 
Him  whose  wish  and  command  are  like  Himself  “the 
same  yesterday,  today,  and  forever,”  the  majority  cry  out, 
not  for  victory  only,  but  for  unity.  In  the  presence  of 
incredible  pagan  necessity  and  misery  Christ’s  followers 
must  be  of  one  mind  and  one  heart.  They  must  all 
hang  together  or  all  hang  separately  when  the  Son  of 
man  shall  come  in  his  glory.  Nor  may  these  pastors 
fondly  hope  that  this  upas  tree  of  reluctance  stretches  its 
roots  no  farther  than  the  mushroom  village  of  Doctrinal 
Dispute.  It  exists  in  congregations  where  that  wound  is 
healed,  and  where  over  its  scar  has  grown  the  flesh  of  a 


god’s  grant  to  the  gentiles. 


7 


little  child.  Congregations  contain  it  which  paid  as  little 
regard  to  our  recent  theological  fisticuffing  as  the  waves 
to  the  royal  mandate  of  Canute. 

Men  and  brethren,  what  shall  we  do  ? O,  for  a fresh 
message  from  the  Lord ! a tidal  w^ave  of  revelation  to 
sweep  away  this  unbelief  and  cause  the  unified  brother- 
hood of  the  Church  to  hold  their  peace  and  glorify  God 
before  the  flaming  conviction  of  our  fathers,  “To  the 
Gentiles  a/si?  hath  God  granted  repentance  unto  life!” 

Perhaps  we  do  not  need  a new  revelation.  What  holy 
men  of  old  wrote  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
may  be  “ profitable  for  doctrine,  reproof,  correction, 
and  instruction  in  righteousness  ” and  able  thoroughly  to 
furnish  today’s  men  of  God  for  missions.  Was  not  the 
very  Scripture  before  us  written  for  example  upon 
whom  the  end  of  this  missionary  age  has  come  ? and,  re- 
stated in  faith,  may  it  not  repeat  the  first  miracle  of  con- 
viction ? In  the  hope  of  this  consummation,  so  devoutly 
to  be  wished,  let  us  open  the  casket  and  take  out  its 
apple  of  gold. 

First,  it  contains  a declaration  of  their  own  precious 
faith,  “God  hath  granted  repentance  unto  life.”  To  the 
Gentiles  also,  no  less,  no  more,  than  to  their  own  grateful 
and  joyous  selves,  hath  God  granted  repentance  unto  life. 

“ Hath  God  granted.”  O,  not  merely  humanitarian  in 
origin  was  this  new  gospel  movement  across  the  face  of 
time  and  which  had  caught  them  in  its  radiant  train ! 
Our  apostolic  fathers  were  too  near  the  divinity  that 
originated  their  Christianity  to  imagine  its  divorcement 
from  God,  its  author.  The  recipients  of  this  revelation 
were  the  men  whose  eyes  had  seen  and  whose  hands  had 
touched  the  Word  of  life.  What  they  had  worth  living  for, 
dying  for,  and  hoping  for  for  their  children  was  a fresh 
grant  from  God.  Every  statement  of  it  began  with  the 
Divine  name.  “God  so  loved  the  world.”  Their  redemp- 
tion called  for  a narrative  in  terms  no  less  august  than 
their  creation.  They  felt  themselves  to  be  the  honored 


8 


god’s  grant  to  the  gentiles. 


creatures  of  a divine  undertaking ; they  were  workers 
together  with  God.  “He,  the  High  and  Holy  One,”  had 
come  among  them  bearing  in  his  white  hands  an  affluent 
extension  of  privilege,  a heavenly  grant,  far  in., advance  of 
what  had  glorified  their  creation.  Made  a little  lower 
than  the  angels,  crowned  with  glory  and  honor,  they  were 
now  the  redeemed  sons  and  daughters  of  God. 

Their  traditions  contained  Alexander’s  conquests,  the 
splendor  and  irresistible  awfulness  of  which  filled  the 
world  and  bore  all  before  and  under  — a miracle  of  time. 
The  majestic,  iron  Roman  movement  then  held  them  in 
its  world-wide  grip.  These  men,  eyewitnesses  of  colossal 
human  things,  were  now  sharers  in  an  undertaking  of 
God  — the  God  of  Alexander  and  Caesar  as  well  as  of 
Abraham,  Moses,  and  David.  They  were  the  grateful 
and  adoring  beneficiaries  of  a divine  grant.  Like  Jacob 
they  awoke  to  find  God  in  that  place,  with  designs  of 
unfathomable  grace  upon  them.  This  new  bush  also  was 
aflame  with  God. 

Nor  were  the  conte7its  of  the  grant  out  of  keeping  with 
its  adorable  Author.  “ Repentance  unto  life.”  The  first 
word  recalls  that  pathetic  bit  of  biography  about  Esau. 
He  sold  his  birthright  for  a profanely  paltry  price  and 
could  find  no  place  of  repentance,  though  he  sought  it 
carefully  with  tears.  Under  this  lifted  curtain  we  see 
the  elder  brother  repenting  at  leisure.  He  walks  blinded 
by  scalding  tears  all  about  the  unhappy  transaction  of 
that  fatal  day,  seeking  a loophole  in  the  compact  through 
which  to  recall  his  fool’s  play ; but  he  found  no  place  of 
repentance.  But  these  fathers  were  born  on  a kindlier 
day  — a day  of  the  Son  of  God,  wherein  the  Esaus,  traders 
in  infinitely  worthier  birthrights,  were  granted  repentance, 
privilege  to  recall  bad  bargains,  and  to  resume  their  for- 
feited heirship  of  their  Father. 

“ Repentance  unto  life."  The  last  word  carried  them 
to  the  “beginning,”  to  the  most  coveted  tree  in  the  gar- 
den, outside  of  whose  closed  and  guarded  gates  the  race 


god’s  grant  to  the  gentiles. 


9 


wandered,  Esau-like,  in  tears.  A^oto  the  race  is  greeted 
with  the  glorious  gospel  of  the  blessed  God.  The  only 
begotten  Son  hath  secured  their  right  to  enter  in  through 
the  gates  into  the  garden — -the  garden  now  grown  to  be 
a populous  city  in  virtue  of  the  mighty  multitude  of  re- 
pentant and  believing  Esaus  admitted,  whose  tears  are  all 
wiped  away  — and  to  the  tree  of  life,  of  which  if  a man 
eat  he  shall  live  forever  in  the  paradise  of  God. 

But  these  early  Christian  fathers  belonged  to  the  class 
who  with  hope  of  Christ  on/y  in  this  life  were  of  all  men 
most  miserable.  In  this  life  only,  after  visions  of  the  un- 
seen and  eternal  They  could  no  more  be  satisfied  with 
the  best  of  the  seen  and  temporal ; as  well  ask  Columbus 
to  be  contented  with  the  Mediterranean,  with  its  shore 
range  always  in  sight,  after  sailing  the  broad  Atlantic  in 
company  only  with  the  sun  and  stars. 

This  was  the  kingdom  of  Israel  revised  by  Jesus 
Christ  — the  inheritance  incorruptible,  undefiled,  and  un- 
fading in  the  heavens  — a living  hope  of  which  the  resur- 
rection of  our  Lord  had  begotten  in  their  own  precious 
faith.  And  now  the  scales  have  fallen  from  their  eyes ; 
the  mists  have  rolled  away;  and  lo!  every  Gentile  — alien 
and  stranger  to  the  commonwealth  of  Israel  — is  by  God’s 
grant  a possible  fellow  citizen  and  member  of  the  house- 
hold of  God,  joint  heir  to  a like  precious  faith.  Erom 
that  day  forward  these  fathers  were  wide-eyed  men. 
The  kingdom  was  as  a cloudless  June  night  sky  viewed 
through  a telescope.  They  know  now  why  their  blind 
hearts  burned  within  them  as  their  Lord  talked  to  them 
on  Olivet  about  preaching  the  gospel  in  all  the  world. 

You  reluctant  brethren  of  the  modern  Church  of 
Christ,  who  daily  bless  the  God  and  Father  for  your  liv- 
ing hope,  come  upon  this  mount  of  divine  vision!  Be- 
hold the  transfiguring  glory  of  your  estate  in  Christ  Jesus 
— this  inexpressible  grant.  Let  the  burning  light  of  the 
conviction  that  smote  the  fathers  to  the  earth  fall  upon 
you.  Make  your  admission  in  like  silence  and  glorifica- 


lO 


god’s  grant  to  the  gentiles. 


tion.  “Then  hath  God  granted”  to  the  American  pagan, 
the  live  Indian,  the  narcotized  Chinaman,  the  licentious 
Japanese,  the  “unspeakable  Turk,”  the  insufferable  Brah- 
man, the  creeping  Pariah,  the  man-eating  Islander,  the 
fetich-groveling  African  — to  man,  thy  flesh  and  blood 
brother,  anywhere,  everywhere,  steeped  and  foul  in  the 
incredible  darkness  of  a Christless  night  — hath  God 
granted  repentance  unto  life,  granted  the  unspeakable 
privilege  with  yourselves  of  entering  into  the  kingdom  of 
his  dear  Son.  Compel  your  narrow  lips  to  say  it  once, 
and  be  redeemed  from  your  unneighborly  unbelief. 

“ God  hath  granted  ” it.  He  doth  not  plead  with  his 
Church  to  grant  it.  Far  up  and  back  in  heaven,  among 
the  ineffable  eternities,  before  the  mountains  were  brought 
forth  or  ever  He  had  formed  the  earth  and  the  world, 
when  we  all  lay  unformed  in  the  loins  of  the  formless 
void,  the  council  was  held,  the  foreordination  took  place. 
Infinite  love  fashioned  the  solitary  decree.  It  rested  in 
divine  patience  and  confidence  for  its  justification  upon 
Calvary.  There  on  the  mount,  outside  the  city’s  gates,  it 
received  its  everlasting  vindication. 

If  God  hath  made  the  grant,  what  then  } Given  the 
heavenly  vision,  what  is  the  task  ? 

On  the  housetop  at  Joppa,  Peter  has  his  dream.  Di- 
vine Wisdom  selects  his  method  of  revelation  and  suc- 
ceeds. The  four-footed  beasts  and  the  fowls  were  a 
parable  understood  by  the  dreamer.  When  Peter  was 
before  Cornelius  and  his  company  in  Caesarea  he  said, 
“Unto  me  hath  God  showed  that  I should  not  call  aujy 
7nan  common  or  unclean.”  We  read  that  while  he  pon- 
dered on  the  vision  “ behold,  the  men  of  Cornelius  stood 
before  the  gate.”  The  vision  and  the  men  were  in  con- 
junction. Peter  must  go  with  the  men.  No  enterprise 
was  ever  more  carefully  conducted  by  its  head.  Before 
Cornelius,  St.  Peter  sees  but  one  duty  — “to  preach 
Christ.”  He  performs  his  duty,  and  soon  the  infal- 
lible sign  of  divine  adoption  is  made.  The  Spirit  falls 


god’s  grant  to  the  gentiles.  II 

on  the  Gentile  company  as  on  the  fathers  in  the  be- 
ginning. It  were  withstanding  God  to  withhold  bap- 
tism. Given  the  vision  of  the  divine  right  of  the 
Gentiles  to  the  privileges  of  the  kingdom,  the  task  of 
disciple-making  among  them  followed  as  the  day  follows 
the  night. 

Who  shall  abrogate  this  relationship  of  visions  and 
tasks  ? Because  we  are  the  Church  of  Christ  we  may 
not  draw  the  easy  inference  that  the  door  of  his  kingdom 
is  merely  to  be  left  hospitably  open,  or  to  write  over  it 
“ Welcome ; ” or,  as  a sufficient  measure  of  hospitality,  to 
send  into  Gentile  winter  St.  Bernard  dogs,  with  food  and 
drink  tied  about  their  necks.  It  is  no  mark  of  heavenly 
grace  that  we  abstain  from  playing  the  flaming  angel 
before  the  gate.  By  confession  we  are  followers  of  him 
who  from  a child  was  about  his  “Father’s  business.”  We 
are  sheep  to  be  housed  from  the  wolves,  but  more  than 
sheep.  We  are  like  the  kissed  and  feted  younger  son, 
who  found  enforced  at  home  the  abiding  law  of  the 
homestead  — the  law  that  during  all  the  years  of  his 
prodigality  required  service  of  the  elder  brother  without 
so  much  as  the  bonus  of  a kid. 

The  incarnation  was  not  an  exceptional  event,  in  kind 
to  remain  sui  generis  throughout  the  Christian  centuries, 
but  one  to  be  in  measure  reproduced  in  every  follower. 
We  are  not  even  diminutive  Christs.  Let  that  spirit  be 

in  us  that  does  not  look  upon  equality  with  Christ  a 
prize  to  be  striven  for.  “ God  hath  highly  exalted  ” us 
and  given  us  the  name  disciple,  above  every  other  name 
but  His;  reproduced  for  the  same  sacred  purpose,  namely, 
to  do  the  Father’s  will  and  work  on  earth.  “My  Father 
worketh  hitherto  and  I work,”  is  the  motto  of  every  true 
son  of  God.  Imagine  an  idle  Lord  before  you  justify  an 
idle  disciple.  It  ought  to  be  the  Christian’s  meat,  as  it 
was  Christ’s,  to  do  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  him  and 
finish  his  work.  We  are  workers  together  with  God. 
Our  works  are  they  that  will  follow  us,  and  from  our 


12 


god’s  grant  to  the  gentiles. 


labors  we  are  to  rest.  Science  seems  to  confirm  this  doc- 
trine of  Christian  responsibility. 

“Whenever  the  scheme  was  planned  it  must  have 
been  foreseen  that  the  time  would  come  when  the  direct- 
ing part  of  the  course  of  evolution  would  pass  into  the 
hands  of  man.  A spectator  of  the  drama  for  ages,  too 
ignorant  to  see  that  it  was  a drama  and  too  impotent  to 
do  more  than  play  his  little  part,  the  discovery  must 
sooner  or  later  break  upon  him  that  Nature  meant  him 
to  become  a partner  in  her  task  and  share  the  responsi- 
bility of  the  closing  acts.  It  is  not  given  him  as  yet  to 
bind  the  sweet  influences  of  Pleiades  or  to  unloose  the 
bands  of  Orion.  In  part  only  can  he  make  the  winds  or 
waves  obey  him  or  control  the  falling  rain,  but  in  larger 
part  he  holds  the  dominion  of  the  world  of  lower  life. 
He  exterminates  what  he  pleases  ; he  creates  and  he  de- 
stroys ; he  changes ; he  evolves ; his  selection  replaces 
natural  selection;  he  replenishes  the  earth  with  plants 
and  animals  according  to  his  will.  But  in  far  grander 
sphere  and  in  infinitely  profounder  sense  has  the  sover- 
eignty passed  to  him,  for  by  the^  same  decree  he  finds 
himself  the  guardian  and  the  arbiter  of  his  personal  des- 
tiny and  that  of  his  fellow  men.  The  molding  of  his 
life  and  of  his  children’s  children  in  measure  lies  with 
him.  Through  institutions  of  his  creation,  through  parlia- 
ments, churches,  societies,  schools,  he  shapes  the  path  of 
progress  for  his  country  and  his  time.  The  evils  of  the 
world  are  combated  by  his  remedies;  its  passions  are 
stayed,  its  wrongs  redressed,  its  energies  for  good  or  evil 
directed  by  his  hand.  P'or  unnumbered  millions  he  opens 
or  shuts  the  gates  of  happiness  and  paves  the  way  for 
misery  or  social  health.  Never  before  was  it  known  and 
felt  with  the  same  solemn  certainty  that  man,  within 
bounds  which  none  can  pass,  must  be  his  own  maker  and 
the  maker  of  the  world.  For  the  first  time  in  history 
not  individuals  only,  but  multitudes  of  the  wisest  and 
noblest  in  every  land,  take  home  to  themselves  and  un- 


god’s  grant  to  the  gentiles. 


13 


ceasingly  concern  themselves  with  the  problem  of  the 
evolution  of  mankind.  Multitudes  more  — philanthropists, 
statesmen,  missionaries,  humble  men  and  patient  women 
— devote  themselves  daily  to  its  practical  solution,  and 
everywhere  some,  in  a Godlike  culmination  of  altruism, 
give  their  very  lives  for  their  fellow  men.” 

Here  is  an  illustration  of  Christian  responsibility. 
Said  A.  M.  Mackay,  that  noble  missionary,  in  his  diary 
while  in  Berlin  in  May,  1874,  “This  day  last  year  Liv- 
ingstone died  — a Scotchman  and  a Christian,  loving  God 
and  his  neighbor,  in  the  heart  of  Africa.  ‘ Go  thou  and 
do  likewise.’  ” And  in  December  of  the  next  year,  in  a 
letter  to  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  “My  heart  burns 
for  the  deliverance  of  Africa,  and  if  you  can  send  me  to 
any  of  those  regions  which  Livingstone  and  Stanley  have 
found  groaning  under  the  curse  of  the  slave-hunter  I shall 
be  very  glad.” 

Pardon  this  abiding  in  the  alphabet  of  our  Christian 
convictions,  but  the  white  light  is  pouring  down  upon  the 
foundations.  Nothing  is  allowed  to  be  merely  because  it 
has  long  been,  or  been  enshrined  in  the  reverence  of 
man.  The  Church  is  not  merely  a city  set  on  a hill,  but 
is  herself  bathed  in  the  blaze  of  a flaming  scrutiny.  Her- 
self and  her  methods  are  under  the  glare  of  the  search 
light.  Never  has  the  world  been  so  exacting  of  the 
Church ! never  such  large  things  awaited  her  doing ! 
Never  before  has  the  Church  so  needed  to  return  to  her 
original  and  study  her  primary  lessons!  Let  us  ourselves 
be  most  critical. 

The  colossal  task  of  the  Redeemer  grows  clearer. 
His  is  not  a flight  through  the  ages  drawing  the  fleeing 
households  into  his  train,  impelled  thither  by  rumors  of 
fast-following  evil.  An  aggressive  campaign  is  the  Lord’s. 
He  never  sounds  the  retreat.  He  is  the  prophet-king 
who  contemplates  his  enemies  under  his  feet.  His  Church 
shall  yet  see,  not  a vast  solitude  of  peace  — a graveyard, 
within  the  trenches  of  which  lie  buried  the  armies  of  hell 


14 


god’s  grant  to  the  gentiles. 


— but  the  city  of  God,  the  New  Jerusalem,  come  down 
out  of  heaven ; the  tabernacle  of  God  among  men  ; all  the 
splendid  conditions  of  heaven  fulfilled  on  earth ; a race, 
individual  and  social,  animated  by  eternal  life  — a celestial 
civilization.  The  Redeemer  must  reign  until  he  has  done 
this.  His  headquarters  are  for  the  time  in  the  sky ; the 
earth  is  the  scene  of  the  enterprise.  His  Church  is  his 
agent,  so  far  as  we  know.  At  Pentecost  the  Spirit  sat 
only  on  the  infant  Church.  It  was  to  do  greater  works 
than  its  founder.  We  know  of  no  crop  of  heavenly 
things  growing  in  any  field  other  than  that  plowed, 
sowed,  and  watered  by  Christian  husbandmen. 

When  Peter  flinched,  the  Lord  had  no  substitute. 
“ On  the  eve  of  his  martyrdom,  as  it  is  said,  the  friends 
of  the  apostle  obtained  the  means  for  his  escape.  They 
pleaded  the  desolation  of  the  Church.  He  may  have 
remembered  his  deliverance  by  the  angel  from  Herod’s 
prison.  And  so  he  yielded  to  their  prayers.  The  city 
was  now  left  and  he  was  hastening  along  the  Appian 
way,  when  the  Lord  met  him.  ‘ Lord,  whither  goest 
thou  ? ’ was  his  one  eager  question ; and  the  reply  fol- 
lowed, ‘I  go  to  Rome  to  be  crucified  again  for  thee.’ 

“Next  morning  the  prisoner  was  found  by  the  keep- 
ers in  his  cell ; and  St.  Peter  gained  the  fulfillment  of  the 
Lord’s  words  and  followed  Him  even  to  the  cross. 

“The  tradition  may  be  only  a thought  clothed  in  an 
outward  dress,  but  it  gathers  up  with  singular  power  and 
beauty  the  sum  of  what  has  been  said.  If  that  Divine 
Figure  rises  up  before  us  in  the  crisis  of  our  trial,  service 
will  be  transfigured  by  the  glory  of  Him  who  came  not 
to  be  ministered  unto  but  to  minister.  So  looking  to 
Christ,  we  shall  come  to  understand  little  by  little  the 
meaning  of  His  command,  sufficient  alone  to  move,  to 
guide,  to  support,  ‘ Follow  me  ! ’ ” 

The  Christian  waits  to  know  what  God  has  for  him 
to  do;  the  Christian  does  what  God  has  for  him  to  do. 
Like  Luther  he  can  do  no  other,  God  help  him ! It  is 
not  safe  for  him  to  violate  his  conscience. 


god’s  grant  to  the  gentiles. 


15 


VVe  are  confused  by  the  clash  of  many  methods,  the 
calls  of  many  pressing  righteousnesses.  Having  set  our 
faces  toward  social  Christianity,  the  manifold  relations  of 
men  pressing  for  reconstruction  stagger  our  faith  in 
Christ’s  old  way  of  converting  men  for  the  sake  of  con- 
verting society  — the  way  after  which  we  have  fashioned 
our  missionary  enterprises.  Yet,  before  the  Lord,  we  are 
making  all  things  after  “the  pattern  shown  on  the 
mount ; ” and  we  trust  by  this  primitive  gospel  outfit  to 
see  paganism  go  under  the  King’s  feet,  with  all  its  moral 
and  social  miseries,  through  the  personal  conversion  of 
its  children  and  by  supplying  her  converted  children  with 
the  affluences  of  a Christian  civilization.  Nor  may  we 
forget  in  the  meantime  to  eradicate  the  long-lingering 
heathenisms  tolerated  in  that  so-called  Christian  civiliza- 
tion. If  the  time  for  great  social  reconstruction  at  home 
has  come,  please  God  we  can  accomplish  both,  Christ 
strengthening  us.  The  men  of  God  are  thoroughly  fur- 
nished unto  every  good  work.  We  must  obey  God  rather 
than  men. 

So  we  take  our  place  on  the  frontiers  of  today’s 
Gentiles,  in  line  with  the  whole  dear  brotherhood  of 
Christ’s  Church,  shod  with  the  preparation  of  the  gospel 
of  peace  and  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  in  hand.  Let  us 
go  forward  singing  the  Battle  Hymn, 

“ He  died  to  make  men  holy,  let  us  die  to  make  men  free.” 

We  dare  hold  no  other  relation  to  our  heavenly 
vision  without  being  disobedient.  “ God  hath  granted  to 
the  Gentiles  also  repentance  unto  life.”  After  the  man 
from  Macedonia  had  preferred  his  midnight  plea  St.  Luke 
writes,  “And  when  he  had  seen  the  vision  straightway 
we  sought  to  go  forth,  concluding  that  God  hath  called 
us  to  preach  the  gospel  unto  them.”  Is  not  this  the 
conclusion  of  the  whole  matter.-'  What  special  indebted- 
ness had  Paul  to  Greek  and  barbarian  that  we  have  not  ? 
Let  tis  straightway  seek  to  go,  also ; but,  going,  depend 


1 6 god’s  grant  to  the  gentiles, 

not  on  mere  humanitarian  impulses,  on  the  gaping  wounds 
of  the  half-dead  foreign  neighbor,  not  even  on  our  confi- 
dence in  Christ’s  missionary  methods. 

We  read  that  the  Lord  at  the  end  of  the  supper 
said,  “That  the  world  may  know  that  I love  the  Father 
, . . Arise,  let  us  be  going.”  In  the  supreme  moment, 
not  his  love  for  men,  but  for  the  Father,  was  his  inner- 
most resource.  Even  so  this  “grant  of  God”  to  the 
Gentile  must  be  supreme  missionary  motive.  Our 
brother  man  has  a divine  right  to  the  tree  of  life,  to 
enter  in  through  the  gates  of  the  city.  The  most  un- 
clean heathen  hidden  in  the  black  heart  of  Uganda  is 
like  the  Waldensian  girl  of  blood-stained  tradition.  On 
her  way  to  the  hidden  chapel  the  dragoon  challenges, 
“ Whither  away,  my  lass  ? ” She  answers  : “ I am  going 
to  my  Father’s  house.  His  Son  is  dead.  The  will  is  to 
be  read  today  and  I am  in  it.”  And,  brethren  beloved, 
we  must  let  him  know  that  he  is  in  it.  We  must  per- 
suade him,  even  as  our  fathers  persuaded  us,  to  accept 
his  patrimony. 


